This meeting's agenda is an opportunity for Councillors to scrutinise transport providers in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Representatives from Southeastern Railway, Network Rail and Govia Thameslink Railway are scheduled to provide updates on their activities in the Borough. The meeting is also an opportunity for the Panel to review future work items.

Annual Transport Scrutiny Meeting

The Annual Transport Scrutiny Meeting is an opportunity for Councillors to hold transport providers accountable for the services they provide in the borough.

Representatives from Transport for London, Southeastern Railway, Network Rail and Govia Thameslink Railway have been asked to provide updates on a range of transport issues. The report pack includes details of the questions that officers intend to ask the representatives.

These issues are scheduled to include the Docklands Light Railway, and the Silvertown Tunnel.

The Silvertown Tunnel is a new road tunnel under the River Thames in East London. It will connect the Royal Docks with the Greenwich Peninsula. The tunnel is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

Councillors have also submitted a series of written questions to the rail operators in advance of the meeting.

For example, Southeastern Railway has been asked why it does not operate a Sunday service on the North Kent Line between Charlton and Lewisham. In its written response, Southeastern Railway said:

This is not currently under consideration. While we previously explored a business case for reinstating a Sunday service between Charlton and Lewisham, the analysis showed that the revenue generated would not be sufficient to cover the costs.

Network Rail will be asked to provide an update on repairs to the bridge over the platforms at Maze Hill station:

The bridge over the platforms at Maze Hill station is in poor condition. It is the responsibility of Network Rail, can you give an update on repairs?

In its written response, Network Rail said that refurbishment of the bridge was planned:

I can confirm that the condition of this structure is indeed the responsibility of Network Rail.

In our current funding cycle (which runs from 2024-2029) we plan to undertake a full refurbishment of this footbridge.

We have not yet completed the detailed scoping stage for the work so I can’t at this point confirm in detail what the refurbishment will involve or the precise timescales, but this work is intended to be a major refurbishment, making the structure fit for the next 25-50 years.

I will keep local stakeholders informed as our plans mature.

The transport providers will also be asked about their plans to improve the reliability of services.

For example, Govia Thameslink Railway has been asked:

What steps are Thameslink taking to improve the reliability of the service with respect to a) cancellations and b) service punctuality?

In its written response, Govia Thameslink Railway said:

From an operations perspective, the main focus is improving driver availability as detailed previously.

As you should expect, with Network Rail and others, the approach to performance is integrated, with the performance strategy focusing on four wider areas outside of traincrew - network management, assets – which is primarily signalling and power supplies, trespass, and then resilience of the network to bad weather.

Commissioning of Future Reports

The final item on the agenda provides an opportunity for Councillors to note the work items scheduled to be presented at future meetings.

The report pack says that the next meeting of the Transport and Place Scrutiny Panel is scheduled for 3 April 2025.

The agenda for that meeting is scheduled to include:

• Strategic Asset Review
• Third Party Strategic Projects (Transport)
• Thames Path connectivity and upgrade time-limited review.